President Won’t Veto Import Ban On Samsung Products In Apple Patent Case

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The U.S. government has no love for Samsung after the Korean company requested that President Obama veto a sales import ban that had been placed on some of its older products. Back in August, the ITC ruled in favor of Apple and placed a ban on several Samsung phones and tablets that infringe on Apple’s patents.

Samsung had hoped that the ban would be vetoed, but no dice.

“After carefully weighing policy considerations, including the impact on consumers and competition, advice from agencies, and information from interested parties, I have decided to allow the import ban,” Obama’s designee, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, said in a statement today.

This is wonderfully poetic when you consider that Obama just recently vetoed a sales ban that been issued on older Apple products (like the iPhone 4S, which Apple still sells today) for infringing on Samsung’s patents. The veto was the first of its kind since the Reagan administration, and Samsung was hoping for lightning to strike twice.

It’s easy to see this as the government favoring an American company over a foreign one, but the issue has more to do with the involved patents. Samsung was using broad, standard-essential patents relating to basic, required smartphone functions to stifle competition from Apple.

The non-veoted ban on Samsung’s products is related to Apple design patents that Samsung has already made workarounds for in newer devices.

Source: Bloomberg

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